297Author's Notes: Of all the times to write a post-Civil War, pre-Infinity War story, right? This fic has been sitting on my hard drive since summer 2016! I almost didn't post it since it's already been thoroughly jossed by the teasers for Black Panther and Infinity War, not to mention the prelude comics, but oh well. This is my take on the interim between Civil War and Infinity War, although I don't attempt to tackle the events of Black Panther directly, this fic will heavily feature Wakanda and T'Challa's experiences.
Canon Note: Naturally, this is a major AU from Black Panther. It draws from the comics material that T'Challa and his sister Shuri are half-siblings. T'Challa's mother, N'Yami died in childbirth, and his sister Shuri and brother Jakarra are T'Chaka's children by his second wife, Ramonda. I drew from as much comic material about Wakanda as possible, but missed the mark on the MCU canon in a lot of ways, primarily that I imagined the outside world knew more about Wakanda's technological power in general.
Chapter One
SIBERIA
Steve's mind was sluggish, and keeping himself and Bucky moving in the direction of the jet was taking far too much of his concentration. Concussion, probably, even through his helmet and the protection the serum had given his bones. Bucky was worse; he could barely keep his feet under him.
"C'mon...hang on, just gotta...get us onto the jet and the auto-pilot set..." Steve mumbled. "Then we'll get all this taken care of." Except where can we go now? What hospital can I take him to?
As the blast doors creaked open, Steve looked behind them, imagining Tony in pursuit with Steve's shield, or maybe a liberated gun. There was no movement from the way they'd come.
"Steve - " Bucky recoiled, nearly pulling them both off their feet. Steve turned, struggling to steady them, and froze: there were two jets out on the snowy ground. The second was neither a Quinjet nor US military, and emerging from its cabin was T'Challa. Bucky pulled against Steve's hold. "No...Steve, no, just go, go..."
"I'm not leaving you," Steve said, and eased Bucky to the ground. Ignoring the warning voice in the back of his mind that he couldn't put up much of a fight, he waited to meet T'Challa. Over my dead body, literally, your highness.
But even as Steve blinked in the blowing snow and swayed pathetically, T'Challa held up his hands. "Captain, I'm not going to hurt your friend. I heard everything. Zemo is secure, and he'll answer for what he did."
Steve just stared for several moments, trying to process it. "You..."
T'Challa squinted past him at the doors. "Is Stark alive?"
You mean did I kill him? "No - I mean, yeah," Steve breathed. Relief seeped like amber over his brain, slowing him down even further. "He's - his suit is shot, it won't fly now..." Can't leave Tony here stranded...can't leave Bucky...can't let Tony near Bucky...can't let Bucky near Zemo. He felt like he was spinning in one of the little snow-devils that whirled across the landscape on the edges of his vision. "He's alive. He might - need a doctor."
"Steve..." Bucky pleaded as T'Challa came closer.
Steve didn't think he was swaying that badly, but T'Challa caught him. "All of you need doctors. Barnes!" As with Tony, Bucky wouldn't stand down, though he was being far less successful at standing up now than earlier. "I will...not...hurt you, or your captain. I'm going to help you."
"Tony'll follow us," Steve said, struggling to think straight. "Anywhere we go, he'll come after Bucky." Where the hell could Steve take Bucky that he'd be safe?
"I know," said T'Challa. "Revenge has consumed him as it did me." He helped Steve kneel at Bucky's side. Bucky flinched away when T'Challa tried to look him over, so the Wakandan king stepped back. "Stark didn't know I was following him, and we'll keep it that way for now. I'll take you to Wakanda. Stark won't think to look there."
He and Steve both jumped as Bucky sagged to the side - and passed out, dead limp in Steve's arms. Steve held onto him and looked around in despair. Under ordinary circumstances, he could carry Bucky without a problem, but now...the snow was reviving Steve a little, but not enough.
"Why would you protect him? Yeah, Vienna was Zemo, but if you heard... you know what Hydra made Bucky do." Desperate and short on options as Steve was, he wouldn't bring Bucky into enemy hands without a fight.
T'Challa straightened and loomed over Steve. "I have wronged you and your friend by trying to mete out punishment by my own hand, without concern for the entire truth. I won't make that mistake again, and I now owe you both a debt. I swear upon my father's grave, Captain, if you accept my protection, you'll come to no harm that is in my power to prevent."
It was just words. And yet... I always put faith in people, individuals. Not governments. And it sounded like something Thor would say. Meeting T'Challa's eyes, Steve slowly nodded. "Okay."
Something beeped. T'Challa looked down at a device on his wrist and aimed it at the building. "Stark is moving, if slowly. We'll leave your jet and Zemo for him." He hauled Bucky over his shoulder and pulled Steve to his feet with his free hand. "Come."
The Wakandan jet's cabin was more cramped than a Quinjet, but there were fold-down beds to secure a prone passenger and plenty of medical supplies. Steve secured Bucky and connected the vitals monitors, and got him on IV fluids. He was worried about Bucky going into shock, but the readings showed he was stable. As Steve tried to figure out what to do for the sparking mess of wires and torn metal that remained of his arm, Bucky came around, moaning.
"Ssh, Buck, it's okay. You're safe," Steve murmured. "T'Challa's gonna help us."
Bucky blinked and cast glassy eyes around the cabin. "You... b'lieve him?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I do. He heard Zemo confess and admitted he was wrong about Vienna. He'll help us because of that." Bucky still flinched as T'Challa came aboard, and Steve looked up as he passed towards the cockpit. "Can Tony make it to the Quinjet alone? If not...I'll have to go back for him."
Whatever Tony had tried to do, whatever he might still do, Steve wouldn't leave him here to die.
T'Challa beckoned Steve to the cockpit, where a screen connected to the jet's controls showed an infrared image of the inside of the base with Tony moving, slowly but steadily, back down the stairs to the doors. They'd entered from different directions, but Tony's suit would have picked up the Quinjet. "I've secured Zemo in your jet," said T'Challa. "He'll assume one of your friends came for you."
Steve's blood ran cold - for the god-knew-how-many-times today. "The others...my team in Leipzig, what happened? Was anyone hurt?"
T'Challa sighed and motioned Steve to sit while he prepared to take off. "Rhodes was hit by friendly fire from the Vision. He was severely injured, but he's alive. Romanoff escaped. Maximoff, Lang, Barton, and Wilson were imprisoned at the supermaximum penitentiary in the North Atlantic."
"The Raft." Thank God Steve was sitting down. That thing had been designed for the Hulk and/or Thor ten years ago - hell, Tony suspected it had been designed for himself in case SHIELD couldn't get Iron Man under control. Steve knew its layout and facilities, but... "I don't even know where it actually is."
T'Challa looked over his shoulder once they were above the clouds and gave Steve a thin, droll smile. "I do. I followed Stark there, and from there, followed him here." He gave Steve a more dubious look. "You must recover if you intend to rescue your friends."
"How far is it?" Steve asked without thinking.
"We can be there in fourteen hours. As to your time to recover, you must tell me."
Steve closed his eyes and rubbed them hard, leaning back against the seat. His worst injury was maybe some cracked ribs and burns from Tony's repulsor shot to the chest. He was already feeling less woozy from the head blows. "I don't like waiting too long. I don't know what Tony'll do once he reports what happened, or how he'll report it. He may take it out on them."
"Then rest. It's heavily armed, staffed by forty guards in rotating shifts and ten support staff, including five who monitor the security systems. Your Secretary Ross was there when Stark arrived yesterday."
"The guards and the weapons shouldn't be a problem if I can get inside." Mindful of T'Challa's declaration of a debt, Steve didn't want to call it in a way that would put T'Challa squarely in the spotlight of aiding international fugitives. Wakanda was an advanced country with powerful resources, he'd read (and observed from its king) but the combined forces of the UN weren't a test Steve wanted to provoke. "I won't ask you to help me, not on that. The US government wouldn't take kindly to a foreign leader aiding directly in a breach like this."
T'Challa's eyes glinted with...something, proud and powerful, making Steve think again about Thor. T'Challa didn't smile, but seemed almost casual as he turned back to the plane's controls. "Don't concern yourself, Captain. Your government will not know I was involved."
THE NORTH PACIFIC
While Rogers and Barnes slept, T'Challa took an evasive route from Siberia towards the North Atlantic. A few hours into the flight, he noticed that Barnes was awake again. "We're flying to the Raft to free the Captain's friends. You should rest. From there, I'll take you to Wakanda. You'll be safe."
Barnes didn't answer, just stared at T'Challa in the dim light. There was a resignation in his eyes that T'Challa recognized, very like his expression in the mobile cell in Berlin. He knew no one but Rogers would believe his story. He was prepared to be put to death for a crime he didn't commit.
"What about a lawyer?" Rogers had said.
Everett Ross had laughed at that. At the time, T'Challa had been smug. Now he was ashamed.
"All men and women have rights in every good society," his father and his teachers had taught him. "We may not name and number them in the same way as the Americans, the Europeans, or the Asians, but decent men have no choice but to defend them, even for the vilest people."
Wakanda's justice would be deemed harsh by the West, but no man or woman charged with a crime would be punished without the chance to defend themselves, or at least explain themselves. In his grief and rage for his king and father, T'Challa had forgotten that. Barnes was still an American citizen. Americans provided lawyers to their citizens as a matter of right - anyone who spent time in America or around Americans knew that. That even Barnes' own people would disregard such a sacred thing should have troubled T'Challa before. It hadn't.
I am king now, and in my first act as king, I let myself be manipulated by Zemo just as he intended for the Avengers. I must do better.
Rogers asked few questions as they crossed the North Pole and flew south towards the Raft, though T'Challa could tell that he wanted to. Even as enemies, T'Challa had sensed that Rogers was an honorable man, but even the closest allies weren't privy to all of Wakanda's secrets. Stark had never realized how closely T'Challa could track Iron Man; the Quinjets' stealth technology had evaded him, but following Stark to Siberia had been easy. (Iron Man tracking was something of a shared hobby among the boys and girls in the Wakandan technology school.) Rogers and Stark also would not know how easily vibranium-based circuitry and non-binary code could breach even their most heavily encrypted computer systems.
As the hours passed, Rogers did show a remarkable recovery from his injuries. He awoke more alert and ate well, tending to his own and Barnes' wounds with murmured reassurances to his friend. Barnes was not so well off. Rogers firmly refused Barnes' weak suggestions that he accompany Rogers into the Raft to rescue the Avengers, and Barnes gave in with little argument.
Only with Rogers awake at Barnes' side did T'Challa set the autopilot and venture closer. "You may still be suffering from shock," he observed. Barnes was pale and sweaty, in visible pain, and unable to sit up. Some of the wires from his arm still sparked. "You're stable for now, but you need medical attention. We'll go directly to Wakanda from the Raft. From there, I'll see to it that your people have safe passage wherever they wish to go."
Barnes focused a confused, bleary gaze on Rogers. "How're you - get in the Raft? 's submerged unless y'have clearance."
"I will handle that," said T'Challa.
Rogers looked at Barnes. "You've been held in there?"
Barnes shook his head. "Got in. Twice, for...oh God." He trailed off and closed his eyes.
Rogers looked at T'Challa and visibly braced himself. T'Challa shook his head. "I know what the Winter Soldier was and what he did. I won't break my oath. After you've both recovered, decide then how to face the past."
"Thank you," Rogers said roughly. He kept a hand on Barnes' good shoulder as T'Challa returned to the cockpit. When T'Challa checked the feed from the camera in the cabin, Barnes had relaxed and was holding Rogers' hand with his good one. Rogers' free hand was pressing a cloth to his friend's face.
THE NORTH ATLANTIC
Steve restrained himself from asking questions on the approach to the Raft, such as how T'Challa was accessing communications traffic between Tony Stark and the UN, let alone how T'Challa gained control of the Raft's systems and convinced it that the Secretary of State had returned.
To Steve's intense relief, Tony hadn't advanced any warnings about his and Bucky's escape, and didn't seem to harbor any suspicions about T'Challa's involvement. Tony took the Quinjet and Zemo directly to Berlin, and no security alerts were given to the Raft.
As they arrived, the giant submarine surfaced below them. "They think this is Ross's helicopter," said T'Challa. "I have control of their internal monitors. By the time they have visual contact, it will be too late. This will be simple; there are only four prisoners. I'm shutting down all internal security measures in one minute."
"I'll get into position." Rogers slipped to the back of the cabin. Barnes murmured a protest, and the Captain answered, "It'll be all right, Buck. I'll be back in ten minutes."
Only after Rogers had left the plane did T'Challa add, "If he is not back, then I will go after him." Barnes looked briefly up at the cockpit, then turned his gaze back to the hatch with an expression T'Challa had never seen on this man in all that had happened over the past few days: anguish.
There was no need for T'Challa to intervene, because Rogers made good on his promise to Barnes, and returned with ninety seconds to spare - quite impressive. He was accompanied by Barton, Wilson, and Lang, as well as Wanda Maximoff still enveloped in a straitjacket and electric restraint collar. T'Challa left the pilot's seat with an electronic key and tablet to see to her before they sealed the plane's hatch.
The four fugitive Avengers stared at T'Challa. "Oo-kay," said Barton slowly.
"Obviously we've missed a few developments since the airport," said Lang.
T'Challa focused on the collar. It was linked to the Raft's security, but better to have it off her - and off the plane - in case there were failsafes triggered to detonate or sedate her if she moved beyond range. "You have, but we should wait until after departure to explain. I will not hurt you," he added to the dazed young woman.
"Were they sedating her?" Steve asked, working on the straightjacket.
"N-no," Maximoff said, blinking at T'Challa. "It just...hurts."
"One moment." With a click, the collar's deactivation codes fell into place, and it opened. T'Challa and Steve hissed in unison, imagining the girl's energy erupting from the shock, but although she sagged into Barton's arms, no red power appeared. T'Challa tossed the collar out onto the landing pad and slapped the controls to close the hatch, then slid past his guests to return to the cockpit. "Strap in. Satellites will have begun searching as soon as they lost the transponder. We're leaving fast."
"Jesus!" Behind him, Wilson had discovered Barnes. "What the hell happened?!"
Rogers' quiet answer silenced the group. "Tony."
There was not a sound in the cabin as T'Challa raised them safely out of the Raft into the sunlight. He entered a final set of commands into the prison's hacked security systems. The Raft's internal security and sensors remained down, with all recording and memory storage devices continually wiping themselves. In an hour, the Raft's transponder would reactivate, and those inside would have reestablish communications. Its life support was untouched and fully operational.
Silence was still thick in the jet as his six guests stared mutely at the floors, the walls, and each other. T'Challa was keenly aware of its cause as he programmed an evasive course for Wakanda: he was returning home to his kingdom, and his people would be waiting for him. But he was returning without his father, and that knowledge sent renewed lances of pain, grief, and rage through his heart.
Behind him, his six guests were going into exile, hunted by their own people, torn from family and denounced by friends. Wakanda would give them sanctuary and comfort - not that they could be sure of that yet - but it would not be home for any of them.
Thanks to the actions of Helmut Zemo, life would never be the same for any of them.
To Be Continued...
Coming Soon: T'Challa brings the fugitives to the safety of Wakanda, but must finally face what he's been putting off - his family, and the beginning of a long grieving process for the loss of his father. The Avengers who've escaped the Raft learn what happened between Steve and Tony, and all contemplate where their choices have led them.
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